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Cost of Raising a Child: 1-Year Old

How Much Does it Cost to Have a Baby?

My wife and I are first-time parents and we are now officially one-year into the “parenting” process. I made it a goal to track all of our childcare expenses so I could truly report on the cost of raising a child. I invite all of my personal finance readers to follow along our journey as I diligently track all expenses involved in truly raising a child these days in middle class America.

The consensus from my research was it costs $14,000/annually to raise a child in 2017. Well, my wife and I are one year in and that first year costed us just a hair under $7,300. So we spent about half of the average (annually) to raise a child. The first few years you don’t incur costs for schooling and sports. However, you do pay for daycare at this point up until they begin kindergarten, so it does come to a bit of a wash.

We also spent $4,568 alone on the delivery of our baby, which includes OBGYN visits the months leading up to the delivery. So of the nearly $7,300 we spent on our baby in year one, really 62% of the cost was due to her delivery alone. The remaining $2,700 was really allocated to daycare, her 529 college fund, formula, diapers, and other items like toys and clothes.